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Pakistan: Curb 'vice' Or Face Suicide Attacks, Mosque Warns
Today's Headlines
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Afghanistan
Taliban Threaten To Kill Interpreter Of Freed Italian
(AKI) - Taliban fighters holding an Afghan interpreter, who was kidnapped but not released along with Italian reporter Daniele Mastrogiacomo, have issued an ultimatum for the government to contact them or he will be killed. The brother of Adjmal Nashkbandi, said he received a phone call late Thursday from a spokesman of Taliban commander Mullah Dadullah. "It is your last chance; you have until Monday at 1500" he said. "The government has done nothing to save your brother - it must get in contact with us" he added.
On hearing the news, Daniele Mastrogiacomo, correspondent of La Repubblica, for whom Naskbandi was working when the two were seized in southern Afghanistan on 5 March, and his editor Ezio Mauro, made another appeal to the Afghan authorities to act to save the interpreter.

"Everyone at Repubblica has been following with anguish this case since the first day of the kidnapping of Daniele Mastrogiacomo and his workmates. Daniele has been able to return free to his family and work but the anguish remains.

"This has already cost the life of Sayed Agha [Mastrogiacomo's driver who was decapitated by the Taliban] and we extend our sympathies to his wife and children. We do not want more mourning. For this we ask President Karzai to do all he considers just and possible to save Adjmal's life," the appeal said.

In a controversial deal, criticised by Italy's NATO allies, Mastrogiacomo was freed in exchange for the release of five Taliban leaders. At first it was thought that his interpreter had been liberated at the same time but the Taliban later confirmed he was still being held.

In a video broadcast on 29 March by the Italian TV channel Sky tg24, Dadullah threatened to kill Naskbandi if President Karzai refused to discuss the release of two detained Taliban members in exchange for him.

Gino Strada, head of the Italian aid group Emergency - which played a key role in securing the release of Mastrogiacomo - has appealed directly to Mullah Dadullah to spare Adjmal's life. He had previously threatened to close down all his group's hospitals in Afghanistan. An Afghan official of Emergency, Ramatullah Hanefi, who was involved in securing the Italian reporter's release, has been held by the Afghan security forces for two weeks.
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  We got another Italian, (Even though he's not, you're still responsible) Gimme, Gimme, Gimme.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/07/2007 11:25 Comments || Top||

#2  Mastrogiacomo ought to pay for his interpreter out of his own damn pocket. Sell his house and his Vespa if need be.
Posted by: Seafarious || 04/07/2007 12:02 Comments || Top||


Africa Horn
Darfur: U.N. Report Denounces Rapes By Sudan Soldiers
(AKI) - The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights on Friday called for investigations into widespread sexual violence during attacks by Sudanese government forces and allied militia in Darfur as well as the disappearance of over a dozen men allegedly at the hands of rebels there. In a new report, the High Commissioner's Office describes attacks in December 2006 in eastern Jebel Marra, Darfur. At least 15 cases of sexual assault, including rape, had occurred, according to the report. At least two pregnant women were targeted in the violence.

"Soldiers came in cars heading towards the hills. Three were in green military uniform and the fourth was in civilian clothes. All four of them were armed and all of them raped me," said one 13-year old victim, according to the report.

While some women were raped in the villages, others were abducted, taken away, raped, and later released.

"Based on testimony gathered, it appears that rape during the December 2006 attacks was used as a weapon of war to cause humiliation and instill fear into the local population. The attacks were indiscriminately aimed at a population of the same ethnicity as some rebel groups and also resulted in civilian death and displacement," the Office of the High Commissioner, Louise Arbour, said in a statement on the reports.

Along with other recommendations, the High Commissioner is calling on government authorities to investigate the attacks. "The investigation should aim to collect evidence to identify and prosecute those who planned, orchestrated, and/or conducted the attacks," Arbour said. "The results of the investigation should be made public, legal action should be taken against those found to be responsible and the victims of the attacks should be compensated."
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Yeah! That's our job."
Posted by: Jackal || 04/07/2007 11:55 Comments || Top||

#2  "Hold out your hands."
SLAP!SLAP!
"Let that be a lesson to you!"
Posted by: Almost Anonymous5839 || 04/07/2007 12:06 Comments || Top||

#3  feckless f"xks
Posted by: Captain America || 04/07/2007 17:13 Comments || Top||

#4  UN Denounces lack of assistance in Uganda...oops, that was us...never mind!

UN Denounces rape of Ivory Coast nationals...oops, that was us...never mind!

UN Denounces forces for standing by as Indonesian troops brutalize E. Timor civilians...oops,those were our troops...never mind!

Get the picture!
Posted by: RN || 04/07/2007 18:41 Comments || Top||


Arabia
Yemen says 32 migrants drowned after crew forced them overboard
Human traffickers forced at knifepoint some 300 Africans to jump into the sea off Yemen early Friday, causing at least 32 migrants to drown, according to a Yemeni security official. The Africans — mostly Ethiopians and Somalis — were packed into two rickety boats that had crossed the Gulf of Aden from Somalia when their crews forced them overboard as they approached the Yemeni coast, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to talk to the media. The official reported the survivors as saying that those who stood up to the crew got stabbed and beaten and were then thrown overboard.

The incident is the latest in a series of cases of abuse of would-be migrants trying to flee the Horn of Africa for Yemen. The government said Thursday that about 5,000 illegal migrants from Ethiopia and Somalia had arrived in Yemen since the beginning of the year, and that 395 passengers on such boats had perished. Many of the casualties were slain by traffickers, or they drowned after their boats sank or they were forced overboard, a government official said.

On Friday morning, the Yemeni authorities found a total of 268 survivors on two different beaches about 12 kilometers (7 miles) apart in the southern province of Shabwa, the official said. They included 120 Somalis and 145 Ethiopians.
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Human Rights organizations going wild in 5..4..3
Posted by: gromgoru || 04/07/2007 5:25 Comments || Top||

#2  In more news from the Religion of Peace My A__ (ROPMA)...
Posted by: covertfloridian || 04/07/2007 9:57 Comments || Top||


King Abdullah criticized by U.S.
Former U.S. ambassador to the UN slams at the Saudi King's remarks on the “legality” of U.S. presence in Iraq.

John Bolton said on Friday that Saudi's King Abdullah was “mistaken” when he questioned the legality of U.S. military presence in Iraq. “With all due respect to the King it's a mistake to characterize the U.S. presence in Iraq illegal”, Bolton said in an interview with the U.S. based Arabic language Al-Hurra television. “I hope the King finds an opportunity to correct that remark in the very near future,” Bolton said. In the aftermath of King Abdullah's statement at a meeting of Arab leaders in Riyadh U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice had a telephone conversation with the Saudi ambassador to U.S. and specifically discussed the matter. Bolton who was also undersecretary of State for arms control and international security was a strong supporter of the war in Iraq.
This article starring:
John Bolton
King Abdullah
Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Standing Tall John Bolton is a Giant on the World Stage while so many sand fleas and Leftard Lilliputians snap and bite at his ankles.

OORAH! You Rock JOHN! ;-)
Posted by: Red Dog || 04/07/2007 3:53 Comments || Top||

#2  King Abdullah ... questioned the legality of U.S. military presence in Iraq

Jordan is a toy kingdom (established by Brits to store Hashemite pretender to Saudi throne) that wouldn't last for 5 minutes after USA support is withdrawn.
Posted by: gromgoru || 04/07/2007 5:11 Comments || Top||

#3  True, but it's the Saudi Abdullah Mr. Bolton doesn't like, gromgoru.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/07/2007 14:00 Comments || Top||

#4  OK, House of Saud wouldn't last for 5 minutes after USA support is withdrawn
Posted by: gromgoru || 04/07/2007 15:34 Comments || Top||

#5  Just another pellet of poison in repayment for our kindness. Abdullah bloats his coffers with American treasure whilst simultaneously flipping us the bird. Funny how he makes no mention of all the blood we're spilling to prevent regional Shiia hegemony. I guess he likes that part. Sort of a win-win for him. Yet another 3,000 dead Americans and no Saudi funding was even required this time. What a deal! The House of Saud is our enemy.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/07/2007 18:55 Comments || Top||

#6  Too bad President Bush couldn't have made another recess appointment involving Bolton. That would have really rubbed the dhimmi's noses in the pudding.

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 04/07/2007 19:14 Comments || Top||

#7  Mr. Bolton as ambassador to Saudi Arabia would be lovely, FOTSGreg.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/07/2007 20:47 Comments || Top||


China-Japan-Koreas
US: Hitch resolved in North Korea funds standoff
A hitch stalling the release of frozen North Korean money from an Asian bank has been resolved, which potentially clears the way for a solution to the dispute that has stalled nuclear disarmament talks, the State Department said Friday. After two weeks of talks in Beijing, banking officials from the United States, China, North and South Korea and the Bank of China have agreed on a "technical pathway" for the $25 million to be returned to Pyongyang, spokesman Sean McCormack said.
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  De-classified Transcript from NSA intercept: "Damn, now I gotta bunch of NSF's. !@#% Bush, I'm going to be real angry this time". (Voice inflection consistent with Team America movie impersonation).
Posted by: covertfloridian || 04/07/2007 0:48 Comments || Top||

#2  Would that $25 mil be in Nork counterfeit Benjamins?
Posted by: PBMcL || 04/07/2007 1:33 Comments || Top||

#3  A hitch stalling the release of frozen North Korean money from an Asian bank has been resolved,

And another stall/hitch is already planned.
This will never end without serious breaking of NORK infrastructure.
Slap them upside of the head, HARD and say "ENOUGH STALLING", then, and only then, will these "Hitches" end
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/07/2007 9:45 Comments || Top||

#4  The State Dept MUST be staffed with incompetents. That's the only possible answer.

(Bolton and Rice excepted)

BOLTON FOR HEAD OF STATE, (Rah, Rah, Rah,)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/07/2007 9:49 Comments || Top||

#5  Rice for Deputy.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/07/2007 10:21 Comments || Top||

#6  I dunno, RJ. Rice was pretty good as National Security Advisor (I was going to put NSA, but that's ambiguous), but I've been very disappointed with her at State.

Powell was pretty decent in the Joint Chiefs, but the less said of his tenure at State, the better.

Do we know that Bolton wouldn't get coopted, too?

Of course, maybe that's the best anyone can do. Look at the past dozen or so. Schultz is the only exception, and I have doubts about him.
Posted by: Jackal || 04/07/2007 21:01 Comments || Top||


Down Under
Australian Islamic Council cuts ties with mufti
CONTROVERSIAL Muslim leader Sheik Taj al Din al-Hilaly has been sacked as mufti by the Australian Federation of Islamic Councils (AFIC). The AFIC has also abolished the role of mufti, severed all ties with the sheik and stopped paying his salary, Fairfax Newspapers report.

AFIC President Ikebal Patel said the organisation owned the title of mufti and had stopped paying Sheik Hilaly's salary. The role of mufti has now become redundant following a decision by the Australian National Imams Council (ANIC). The council has decided to create a community of imams to deal with community issues and a chairman or president will be selected as spokesperson.

But the Egyptian-born sheik has fought back and registered the title of mufti for himself.

The move to oust Sheik Hilaly comes as Australian Federal Police investigate allegations that he gave charity funds to supporters of the al-Qaeda and Hezbollah terrorist organisations.

His sacking follows a string of controversies which have embarrassed the Islamic community. Last year the sheik likened scantily-clad women to uncovered meat and then, during a visit to Egypt, said Muslims had more right to be in Australia than Europeans.

ANIC spokesman Mohamad Abdalla said 39 of the 50 clerics who attended the ANIC conference last month voted against reappointing him. “Muslims don't want al-Hilaly as mufti,” Dr Abdalla said. Sheik Hilaly will cease to be mufti once his three-month grace period ended, Dr Abdalla said.

Fairfax reports that the sheik, who is in Turkey at a conference, has established his own organisation in a bid to corner the title of mufti for himself.
Posted by: Elmavith Fluck6403 || 04/07/2007 09:42 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Well, that only took how many months? Here's a hint: Hilali's "uncovered meat" speech was delivered last October. This sort of lethargic action against Hilali belies any pretense of concern on the part of Australia's Muslim leadership with respect to their community's impact upon the everyday lives of Aussies. Rather, it is a glaring admission that Islam's covert intentions were revealed far too explicitly for their tastes and they have sought to recitfy that damaging error.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/07/2007 12:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Bummer.
Where's the nearest welfare office?
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/07/2007 22:02 Comments || Top||


Australians 'worst Muslim haters'
Firebrand Islamic convert Yvonne Ridley has accused Australians of being among the worst Muslim haters in the world. As millions of Australians celebrated Easter, they were branded Islamophobes by the outspoken British woman.

She believes Australian attitudes to Islam are hardening faster than any other nation. "I'm deeply shocked," Ms Ridley said. "It's not what it was when I was last here three years ago. I've visited over 20 different countries in the last three years and Australia is the most shocking in terms of deterioration."

Ms Ridley, 48, will speak about Islamophobia today at a controversial Muslim conference at Melbourne University. Thousands are expected to attend a series of lectures over the weekend.

Organisers laughed off suggestions the First Annual Australian Islamic Conference was staged over Easter to insult Christians. "We certainly meant no insensitivity," organiser Adel Salman said. "We weren't making any particular statement or any religious statement. It was purely a convenient time to schedule the conference."

Two controversial sheiks have been refused visas to speak at the conference. Several politicians also wanted Ms Ridley banned.

The former investigative reporter was briefly held captive by the Taliban in Afghanistan in 2001 and converted to Islam two years later. She discourages British Muslims from co-operating with anti-terrorism police and she refers to suicide bombings as "martyrdom operations".

But Ms Ridley dismissed objections to her presence by Australian politicians. "It's entertaining but there is an election in the air," she said.

The conference, staged by non-profit Muslim group Mercy Mission, hit the headlines when the Herald Sun revealed that radical Muslim academic Sheik Bilal Philips had been refused a visa for security reasons. He has been linked to the 1993 World Trade Centre bombings and has described US-led Western culture as an enemy of Islam. A visa for another Islamic academic, Sheik Jaafer Idris, was not processed in time.

But Mercy Mission's Adel Salman vowed to bring the scholars to Australia in the future. "We hope that one day we'll be able to bring Jaafer Idris and Dr Bilal Philips to Australia," Mr Salman said. "That's certainly our hope but whether or not that happens is up to the Australian Government."

Mr Salman believes their rejection was politically motivated. "I believe (Sheik Philips) was rejected because he was seen as a threat to Australia," he said. "On that basis we don't agree with the decision because we don't see that he is a threat to Australia or Australians."

Sheik Philips was named an "unindicted co-conspirator" in the first World Trade Centre attack in 1993, that killed six and injured 1000. But Mr Salman described him as a wise and eminent Muslim thinker. "We've done our own research and investigation, and we're very confident that he's not in any way linked to any such (terrorist) activity. In fact, he's a man of peace and moderation and is very well qualified.

"We believe he is one of the foremost academics on Islam in the world today and just through sheer knowledge and wisdom we believe he would have brought a lot to this conference."
Posted by: ryuge || 04/07/2007 08:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "Shut up, uncovered meat!"
Posted by: Frank G || 04/07/2007 8:15 Comments || Top||

#2  "It's not what it was when I was last here three years ago. I've visited over 20 different countries in the last three years and Australia is the most shocking in terms of deterioration."

It is called waking up.
Posted by: Excalibur || 04/07/2007 8:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Aussies woke up before America, but when America comes fully awake then you will be in deep sh*t.
Posted by: djohn66 || 04/07/2007 9:01 Comments || Top||

#4  Yes, When Muslims make a habit of raping beachgoers it DOES tend to upset folks.

You want to be accepted? Not hated for your actions? then dangle a few of your offenders on lampposts, believe me, that will be respected, not condemned. Just be very sure that the REAL rapists dangle.

Actions speak far louder than words.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/07/2007 9:38 Comments || Top||

#5  Good on ya, Diggers!
Posted by: Mac || 04/07/2007 9:42 Comments || Top||

#6  This cityslicker appreciates RedNeck's comment. We need to send Ann Coulter over there to convert them to Christianity or beat them to death one by one with a dijiridoo [sic?]
Posted by: covertfloridian || 04/07/2007 9:44 Comments || Top||

#7  Since they believe in "Forced Conversion" grab them and baptise them, be sure to take video, release them, publicise the video, and they're doomed (Remember their Religion does NOT allow them to leave or convert, it"s a death sentence if they do.)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/07/2007 9:54 Comments || Top||

#8  Speaking as a patriotic American, I personally resent Australia being out in the lead like this.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/07/2007 11:12 Comments || Top||

#9  I had no idea that Australians were so smart and perceptive, although it is well known that their noses are exceptional when smelling the bullsh*t in the Ms. Ridley's of the world. Insulting Australians and making them angry is not smart, Ms. Ridley.
Posted by: whatadeal || 04/07/2007 12:04 Comments || Top||

#10  Not to worry, Zenster. Rantburgian citizenship still guarantees a light-year advance on the Australians.
Posted by: Excalibur || 04/07/2007 12:18 Comments || Top||

#11  Zenster... I second your opinion!

Blackvenom-2001
Posted by: Blackvenom-2001 || 04/07/2007 12:49 Comments || Top||

#12  she refers to suicide bombings as "martyrdom operations".

What can you say about someone in an open, and free society that preaches this?

Posted by: anymouse || 04/07/2007 15:00 Comments || Top||

#13  He, he, he.
Posted by: gromgoru || 04/07/2007 15:29 Comments || Top||

#14  How could the timing of this conference be anything BUT an insult to Christians? I'm insulted.
Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 || 04/07/2007 17:25 Comments || Top||

#15  She discourages British Muslims from co-operating with anti-terrorism police and she refers to suicide bombings as "martyrdom operations".

Can't she be prosecuted for advocating violence? Put her in a jail cell where the toilet faces Mecca.
Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 || 04/07/2007 17:28 Comments || Top||

#16  Sounds better if you call it "Best Muslim Haters" - oh and I'd like to get ranked personally.
Posted by: jds || 04/07/2007 17:54 Comments || Top||

#17  Get out of my country bitc*
Posted by: Oztralian || 04/07/2007 18:39 Comments || Top||

#18  well while being a prison colony of the british you got alot of gene pools in Australia and the aboriginy (sp) colonies that are pretty smart. Even after the beer as you can tell by my post
Posted by: sinse || 04/07/2007 20:28 Comments || Top||

#19  If world renowned Looney Tune Yvonne Fuckin Ridley's on your case, you must be doing something right...
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/07/2007 21:57 Comments || Top||


Europe
The Muslim Brotherhood in Holland
Posted by: Hupeanter Angavitle7996 || 04/07/2007 13:08 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Not at all a comfortable article, but important to know, Hupeanter Angavitle7996. Thank you.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/07/2007 22:35 Comments || Top||


Balkans: Wahabis Seen As Growing Regional Threat
(AKI) - Although still a small group, Wahabis, followers of a fundamentalist school of Islam, are being seen by officials and observers as a growing threat to the Balkans. Tensions between Wahabis and mainstream Muslims have been simmering for the past 18 months as Wahabis seek to gain influence in Bosnia-Heregovina and also in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo.
Tensions between Wahabis and mainstream Muslims have been simmering for the past 18 months as Wahabis seek to gain influence in Bosnia-Heregovina and also in Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo.
In the past months, seven suspected militants were arrested in southern Serbia and a radical Islamist training camp and weapons cache uncovered. Evidence, the Serbian interior ministry says, that Wahabis are trying to recruit potential terrorists and plot attacks.

On Tuesday, at the request of the Serbian authorities, police in breakaway Kosovo province issued an arrest warrant for Ismail Pretic, who they claim is a Wahabi militant who may have fled to the United Nations administered province. Road-blocks have been erected in northern Kosovo to help apprehend Pretic, who should be considered "armed and dangerous," according to police.

Serbian security officials say militants at the Wahabi training camp in Serbia's southern Sandjak region - were planning an attack on local Muslims.
"When these men were arrested, it was clear they had received some financial support since they were all poor yet loaded with weapons."
On 17 March police discovered there an underground arsenal of weapons, including rocket-propelled grenades, 10 kilogrammes of plastic explosives and automatic assault rifles. Police said they arrested four suspected Islamist militants during the raid a further two on 19 March. Up to 30 Wahabis had been gathering and undergoing training in the camp at Ninaja Mountain, about 30 km north of the town of Novi Pazar police said. The six men arrested all come from Novi Pazar, capital of Sandjak - a Serbian region populated predominately by Muslims. “Wahabis did not act this openly before. When these men were arrested, it was clear they had received some financial support since they were all poor yet loaded with weapons. Their main target was and still is the Islamic community in Sandzak," Mufti Muamer Zukorlic, leader of Islamic community in Sandzak told Adnkronos International (AKI).
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
Alija Izetbegovic
Ismail Pretic
Jusuf Barcic
Karray Kanel Bin Ali
Mufti Muamer Zukorlic
Negojsa Radmanovic
Nusret Imamovic
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The fruits of Billary.
Posted by: gromgoru || 04/07/2007 2:23 Comments || Top||

#2  In a related article A Bosnian Muslim theology professor said Wahhabi objectives in Bosnia are no different to those pursued by Wahhabis in Afghanistan or Chechnya, which are to annihilate traditional forms of Islam. In Bosnia, this means wiping out all traces of the old Ottoman culture..Wahhabis want to destroy whatever doesn’t fit in with their “single-minded, fundamentalist tradition, or their monotonous Bedouin culture”.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/07/2007 3:08 Comments || Top||

#3  Not a bad post agrouper-homo-sapien.

I'm glad to see our oil dollars in Salami Arabia are going to such good purposes as helping out these Wahannabis in BH.
Posted by: covertfloridian || 04/07/2007 10:02 Comments || Top||

#4  Exactly right, covertfloridian. We should maybe encourage President Bush to go hold hands with a Saudi prince (but not in a gay way) to show our support for our Arabian allies in the "Great War on Terror".
Posted by: Excalibur || 04/07/2007 12:28 Comments || Top||

#5  A Faustian bargain if there ever was one..Was Mephistopheles in the room that day when they agreed to this? The day will come when this will bite them in the ass and they will look to the west to bail them out.

Because of the Wahabi military support in the 1990s, the Bosnian government has been reluctant to crack down on Wahabi religious and military training efforts, analysts say.
Posted by: Caesar Glemp7672 || 04/07/2007 22:24 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Crawford Peace House Hit by Strife
all is not well in the Moonbat Central Casa De Sheehan....
With allegations of money mismanagement, threats of court action and some members leaving, a group that has sponsored war protests in President Bush's adopted hometown has been anything but peaceful. The Crawford Peace House recently lost its corporate charter with the state, and a former member who now has rights to the name is threatening legal action because the group continues operating.
heh - it gets better
Sara L. Oliver and some others are calling for a state investigation as to why only $14,700 is now in its bank account, saying tens of thousands donated during Cindy Sheehan's 2005 war protest are unaccounted for.
2005 and 2006 foreign junkets on the "banking on Casey's death" tour, perhaps?
"There are people who have said, `Don't say anything because you'll hurt the peace movement,'" Oliver said. "But if the peace movement isn't pure and transparent and holy as it can be at its heart, then it's just like George Bush: lying, thieving, conniving, backstabbing bastards."
LOL
John Wolf, who co-founded the Crawford Peace House in 2003 in a two-bedroom, one-bathroom white-clapboard house just across the railroad tracks from downtown, denied allegations of wrongdoing. He said the claims were by only a few people and would not hurt the work of the Crawford Peace House, which is planning a fourth anniversary celebration Sunday.

He said the Peace House has an accountant and has kept diligent records, which soon will be posted in its Web site. He said most of the $285,000 raised in 2005 was spent on food, van and bus rentals, gas and a large tent for the rallies at several events.
and patchouli oil. But not bathing facilities
"All of this money was given to us to take care of people who came here, and that's what we did," Wolf said Friday. "If somebody has fantasies, I can't affect that."

The Crawford Peace House bank account had only $3 in early August 2005, but Sheehan's monthlong vigil in ditches off the road leading to Bush's ranch brought thousands of people and donations from across the country. Because the rural campsite was small, most protesters spent much of their time at the Peace House, which also became headquarters for Sheehan, whose son died in Iraq in 2004.
and again, every time she opens her vacuous mouth
Wolf said he plans to turn in the franchise tax report next week — nearly a year late — to the Texas Comptroller's Office to regain the Peace House's corporate charter. The report was not filed sooner because the house's volunteer director was overwhelmed with other tasks and was confused about whether the paperwork had to be filed if no taxes were owed, he said.
rriigghttt
Losing a corporate charter means the board members themselves are liable for any debts the entity might owe, the comptroller's office said.

Wolf said the Texas Secretary of State's Office made a mistake last month in allowing Oliver to file documents forming a nonprofit corporation called the Crawford Peace House. Wolf said the Crawford Peace House that he co-founded still exists as an unincorporated entity, as well as a religious group, so Oliver is violating state statutes that prevent an organization from having the same or similar name as an existing one.
Red on red....
The Secretary of State's Office was closed Friday for the Easter holiday and no one could be reached for comment.

Wolf said the Peace House also was applying to become a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Oliver, who said she left the group in 2005 after encountering hostility when she tried to help secure grants for it, said she doesn't want to form a counter group. But she said she would allow some current members to use the name, as long as the house director and leaders account for the money and resign.

Sandra Row, another former member, said up to 75 people have left the peace group over concerns about financial issues or hurt feelings. She said in the summer of 2005, she saw buckets of cash donations in the Peace House — some of which went to pay veterinarian bills for the cat living there. But some demonstrators who bought tents, lanterns and other supplies never got reimbursed, she said.
I blame the cat
"You'll never know how much money there is because the cash is gone," Row said. Wolf said he was not there every day but that the Peace House had receipts for all expenses.
in a coffee tin buried in the back yard...maybe
Sheehan, whose name is listed on the 2005 franchise tax report as a Crawford Peace House board member, said Friday that she has never been consulted about its financial matters and knew nothing about the current situation.
"I know nuuuutthhiinng" /Sgt Schultz
Sheehan said the matter would not hurt the peace movement or the weekend's activities coinciding with Bush's weekend ranch visit.

About 50 protesters went to Sheehan's original campsite Friday afternoon and then marched about a mile down the winding, two-lane road to demonstrate in a ditch across from the roadblock set up when Bush is at his ranch. "We do this to save other people's children, so they won't have to go through what we did," Sheehan said.
Posted by: Frank G || 04/07/2007 19:23 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  ""We do this to save other people's children, so they won't have to go through what we did," Sheehan said."

Yeah, being a media whore is hard work.
Posted by: WTF || 04/07/2007 19:57 Comments || Top||

#2  then it's just like George Bush: lying, thieving, conniving, backstabbing bastards

Paging Nancy Pelosi to the white courtesy phone.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/07/2007 20:11 Comments || Top||

#3  excellent graphic choice, Mods
Posted by: Frank G || 04/07/2007 20:21 Comments || Top||

#4  Cindy a dupe?
Say it ain't so!!!
In the 30's this weekend in Texas. I hope the bitch freezes to death in that ditch.
Posted by: tu3031 || 04/07/2007 21:54 Comments || Top||

#5  Losing a corporate charter means the board members themselves are liable for any debts the entity might owe, the comptroller's office said.
Sheehan, whose name is listed on the 2005 franchise tax report as a Crawford Peace House board member, said Friday that she has never been consulted about its financial matters and knew nothing about the current situation.

That's OK, Cindy, the comptroller will explain it to you.
Posted by: GK || 04/07/2007 23:06 Comments || Top||


Rep. Obey Credited for House War Bill
WASHINGTON - In putting together the House's war spending bill, Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey gave false information to fellow Democrats, yelled at anti-war protesters and slammed The Washington Post. "I didn't come here to win any charm-school award," the cantankerous Wisconsin Democrat said in an interview.
That's an understatement.
His social skills aside, analysts and lawmakers credit Obey for pushing the $124 billion spending bill through the House last month on a 218-212 vote. House and Senate negotiators will craft a final bill, which faces a near-certain White House veto.

"David Obey is a very, very bright guy with a very, very short fuse," said Rutgers University political science professor Ross Baker. "Given the factionalism within the Democratic caucus in the House, I think he handled it very skillfully. He has a reputation for not suffering fools lightly, and he had to suffer a number of fools."
And we have to suffer his foolishness.
Obey, 68, made it clear that the legislation bearing his name was not his ideal bill.
I wanted a pony, too!
"I told the Democratic caucus what I'm bringing to the floor isn't my choice, it isn't my first preference," Obey said over lunch at the National Democratic Club on Capitol Hill. "If I had my way, we'd be out yesterday.
It's a damned good thing you can't have your way.
"I used to think when I become chairman, boy, I would be able do all kinds of wonderful things that I wanted to do. And after I became chairman, I learned that while you can have your own preferences, and your own agenda, that you spend 90 percent of your time simply trying to find the balance point in the House. So you're constantly balancing other peoples' preferences and agendas."
Hey, Dickweed, that's the way it's supposed to work. You weren't elected Dictator and are no better than anyone else. Welcome to reality.
Although Obey's legislation calls for U.S. troops to leave Iraq before September 2008, it also funds the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, angering anti-war activists who want an immediate cutoff of funds for Iraq. That led to a lively exchange between Obey and a peace protester outside his office, caught on video and widely circulated on the Web. "We're trying to use the supplemental to end the war," Obey told the activist, Tina Richards, after she asked whether he planned to vote against it. "But you can't end the war if you vote against the supplemental. It's time these idiot liberals understand that." He later apologized.
HAha! He said Idiot Liberals!
Rep. Ike Skelton, a Missouri Democrat who chairs the House Armed Services Committee, called Obey "the ultimate legislator. He's very, very good at doing what he does. He had a near impossible task of gluing the language together that finally passed the House."

In crafting the bill, Obey was so angered about leaks to the media that he deliberately gave some Democratic members false information to find out who the culprits were. He said he doesn't regret doing so.
I lied an' I'm proud of it! I'll do it againg, too! So how do we know when he's telling the truth? Lie to me once and I don't believe anything else you tell me.
"When people are getting in the way of finding a solution - damaging all you're trying to do - you use all the techniques you can," Obey said.
The end justifies the means.
He also won't offer any apologies for the $20 billion in the legislation for domestic spending, which was widely criticized by the Bush administration, newspaper editorials and budget hawks. On the day of the vote, he complained about a Washington Post editorial that skewered Democrats for including "wasteful subsidies to agriculture or pork barrel projects aimed at individual members of Congress."
They forgot. Wasting money is what Congress does best.
Taking to the House floor, Obey said the bill ends "the permanent long-term, dead-end baby-sitting service." "And if the Washington Post is offended about the way we do it, that's just too bad," he added angrily. "But we're in the arena, they're not, and this is the best we can do given the tools we have, and I make absolutely no apology for it."

The bill included millions of dollars for things like peanut storage and payments to spinach farmers, as well as the renewal of a milk subsidy program that has benefited Wisconsin more than any other state. "There are lots of people in this town who always look down their nose at something labeled agriculture," Obey griped in the interview. "Funny, funny, ha-ha." Referring to the milk program, he said, "Pardon me if I insist that farmers that I represent get equity."
Hey, Weinerhead! That ain't equity, it's a taxpayer funded subsidy.
He also said that many items in the bill were leftovers from the last session that Republicans didn't get finished when they controlled Congress.

Brian J. Kennedy, a spokesman for House Republican leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, responded, "It sounds like the guy who holds both the checkbook and the pen is trying to pass the buck on an indefensible bill."

Obey, who plays harmonica in a band called The Capitol Offenses, is one of the longest-serving members in the House. He won a special election in 1969 to replace Republican Melvin Laird, who had resigned to become secretary of defense for President Nixon. Laird and Obey have remained good friends over the years. "Any damn fool can put something up that defines how he feels," Obey said. "But you've got to ... find a combination that will work and also make sense on the ground, because there are lots of things that may make sense politically but make no damn sense in terms of what's happening in Iraq."
Posted by: Deacon Blues || 04/07/2007 10:32 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Obey is the poster boy for 'Maroon, what a'.
Posted by: Omeasing Lumplump2368 || 04/07/2007 12:03 Comments || Top||

#2  Arrogant bastard.
Posted by: Elmereter Hupash6222 || 04/07/2007 17:32 Comments || Top||

#3  I would replace "credited" with "to blame."
Posted by: Jackal || 04/07/2007 21:04 Comments || Top||

#4  He's "very very bright"? I suppose Skelton voted for this POS, so no surprise he views this idiot as intelligent.

It's a measure of the ignorance and detachment from reality - not to mention the disappearance of any standards of intelligence or common sense - that "baby-sitting" can be used by these morons and not be laughed out of the public square. Let's see, how long did it take for most of Europe to step up to its Cold War responsibilities - hmmm, right, NEVER. Was this airhead calling THAT undertaking "baby-sitting"?

Let's see how this f***ing moron does mustering a veto-override number. Idiot.
Posted by: Verlaine || 04/07/2007 23:44 Comments || Top||


Albright Defends Speaker Pelosi for Syria Trip Opposed by Bush
Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright defended House Speaker Nancy Pelosi for going to Syria against the wishes of President George W. Bush, saying the trip showed the importance of meeting leaders at odds with the U.S. Pelosi conferred with Syrian President Bashar al-Assad on April 4, brushing aside a request from Bush to avoid the country accused by his administration of allowing fighters to enter Iraq. Bush called her trip ``counterproductive.''

``I spent a lot of time in Damascus talking to Bashar's father,'' Albright, 69, said in an interview on Bloomberg Television's ``Political Capital with Al Hunt,'' scheduled to air today. ``I talked to a lot of people that we didn't necessarily agree with, and I think that's not a bad message.''
You talked to the Poofy-Haired Midgit in North Korea; look at how that turned out.
Bush has come under pressure from Democrats and some Republicans to hold broad talks with Syria and Iran about Iraq and other Middle East issues. Syria and Iran are both listed by the U.S. as state sponsors of terrorism, chiefly for their support of Islamic groups hostile to Israel. Asked if Pelosi, 67, had a productive visit to Syria, Albright said ``it had mixed signals.''

While the U.S. has had minimal contact with Syria since the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq Hariri in 2005, there has been a slight shift in course this year. U.S. officials met both Syrian and Iranian delegates at a March 10 conference in Baghdad, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the U.S. is ``open to higher-level exchanges'' to try to stabilize Iraq.
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  the trip showed the importance of undermining the rule of law meeting leaders at odds with the U.S.
Posted by: gromgoru || 04/07/2007 5:24 Comments || Top||

#2  When Halfbright was talking to foreign government leaders it was as the designated representative of the Executive branch, not a Logan Act-violating individual who was expressly told she was NOT a representative of the US (despite being a Representative of the state of California.)
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/07/2007 7:02 Comments || Top||

#3  name one diplomatic success by the brooch-wearing troll. One that had lasting results
Posted by: Frank G || 04/07/2007 8:18 Comments || Top||

#4  name one diplomatic success by the brooch-wearing troll. One that had lasting results

Allowing North Korea to get nukes.
Posted by: JFM || 04/07/2007 9:15 Comments || Top||

#5  Since when does Half-Bright get any say?,
This is simply a "GETCHER NAME IN THE PAPERS stunt for Half-Bright.(Slow news day?)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/07/2007 10:00 Comments || Top||

#6  What in Hell has allowed America to forget the lessons of World War II? Back then, Albright, Pelosi and their ilk would have been branded as traitors in a heartbeat. Instead these fuckwits get to meddle in affairs so far out of their orbit that it makes the Oort cloud look like next door.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/07/2007 11:18 Comments || Top||

#7  "brushing aside a request from Bush"
but noooo, whatever happened to not negotiating with terrorists and not giving any credibility to terrorists? Thanks Pelosi.
I only recently read the Logan act, learning about it here on the 'burg, let's institute it!
Posted by: Jan from work || 04/07/2007 12:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Zen...I think what happened is the trunk Congress/ Senate forgot who brung 'em to the dance. And W lost his vision and his cajones. The whole trunk party through away the advantage, including credibility and the Goodwill of the vast middle-of-the-roaders...and here we sit.

Can you imagine what Halfbright and Clinton would have done if Gingrich or Hastert would have pulled the stunt Pelosi did?
Posted by: anymouse || 04/07/2007 15:11 Comments || Top||

#9  Intersting photo... are Madeleine and Helen Thomas related?
Posted by: Gerthudion Omagum8348 || 04/07/2007 15:57 Comments || Top||

#10  no, but Madeleine and Burgess Meredith are
Posted by: Frank G || 04/07/2007 15:59 Comments || Top||

#11  I think what happened is the trunk Congress/ Senate forgot who brung 'em to the dance. And W lost his vision and his cajones.

Sounds like a pretty fatal combination, anymouse. Someone needs to tell George that they don't grow back by themselves.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/07/2007 18:21 Comments || Top||

#12  Correct if I am wrong, but didn't Pelosi tell the Syrians that Israel was ready to negotiate on pending issues in the Middle East; only to has Israel to deny it? This show's Speaker Pelosi's naivete about the Middle East or being seriously ill advised. The scarier part is that she is third in line for the Oval Office. If that does not keep one awake at night, I don't know what would.
Posted by: Caesar Glemp7672 || 04/07/2007 22:40 Comments || Top||

#13  You are indeed correct, Caesar Glemp7672. I think this shows that Speaker Pelosi is willing to walk quite a distance from the truth, if she thinks it will make her look good.
Posted by: trailing wife || 04/07/2007 22:52 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Madrassa paper mocks government, praises veiled vigilantes
The recent edition of Jamia Hafsa’s newspaper carries a string of reports that mainly highlight activities of the students and their “moral policing” of society. “Government given 7-day deadline to enforce Sharia,” says a banner headline in the March 30 issue of the newspaper called Khabarnama Jamia Syeda Hafsa. Another front page report says that the seminary students had begun “corrective patrolling” of the town during which they would go to video and music centres and barbers shops and “politely” ask them to quit their businesses.

The paper contains pictures of the Lal Masjid and an inside view of what appears to be the Jamia Hafsa madrassa. Another photograph at the bottom shows masked men standing near two police vehicles seized by the madrassa students to press the police to release two arrested teachers. The photograph goes with a story that narrates the “sensational exploit” of the madrassa girls.

The report mentions how an unnamed college girl came to Jamia Hafsa one day and told the students that she had been tricked into prostitution by a woman running a “brothel” in Sector G-6.

The unnamed girl said that the woman, Shamim Akhtar, had taken her photographs when she was in a compromising position and was now blackmailing her into prostitution. The paper has also given prominent space to the incident of Akhtar’s abduction by madrassa students under the headline: “Raid on brothel, guilty woman seeks forgiveness.”

Another report is a statement by the head of Lal Masjid, Maulana Abdul Aziz, who says that the students would sacrifice their lives for enforcing Sharia. “Our students are now ready for enforcing Sharia and will peacefully present their demands to the government,” says Aziz. The Capital Development Authority (CDA) has been targeted for keeping silent on illegal buildings. “There isn’t a house, building or a hotel in Islamabad built strictly under the construction guidelines of the CDA, yet when it comes to mosques and madrassas the CDA starts declaring them illegal,” the report says.

A report by the paper’s special correspondent says that the district administration and federal ministries were becoming hostage to the students of Jamia Hafsa. “Despite chalking out various strategies and plans to end the occupation of the Children’s Library by the Jamia students, the authorities have not been successful.”

The paper carries an advertisement of the Nifaz-e-Shariat-o-Azmat Jihad Conference that began at the Lal Masjid on Friday. It says that by demolishing seven mosques in Islamabad, the writ of Allah has been challenged. “The brave students of Jamia Hafsa challenged the writ of the government by occupying the Children’s Library,” it claims. The advertisement goes on to describe a set of four demands presented to the government while at the bottom it lauds madrassa students for starting a campaign against un-Islamic practices.
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Target coordinates, please.
Posted by: gorb || 04/07/2007 1:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Perv gettin gready to take them up on that offer to give up their lives.
Posted by: OldSpook || 04/07/2007 2:10 Comments || Top||

#3  I wish you were correct, Old Spook, but I don't think so. To be this flagrant, the madrassa has friends in very high places. And the pattern of responses by the government to the talibanization of the NW territories demonstrates the government is more afraid of the Taliban than of its 'moderate'/secular citizens (even if the Talibunnies are a minority.)
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/07/2007 6:54 Comments || Top||


Extremism in the heart of Capital
Sermons blared from loudspeakers at Lal Masjid at the start of a three-day Nifaz-e-Shariat-o-Azmat-e-Jihad Conference on Friday that attracted thousands of clerics, madrassa students and activists from religious outfits across the country.

Young madrassa students wielding batons and covering their faces with veils, guarded the area around the mosque, bordering Jamia Hafsa, with motorists and passers-by curious about the commotion. Religious messages were put up on tree trunks on the Municipal Road that runs alongside the mosque, in addition to several banners. The most prominent one addressed the prostitutes advising them to first seek forgiveness and then to visit Jamia Hafsa to learn about Islamic teachings. “The madrassa teachers have set up a special centre for them (prostitutes) where they will be provided with complete financial support,” the message said and continued that “such women will be made to undergo Islamic courses and the Jamia will help them marry noble men so they can lead good lives.”

The message has a clear reference to the recent events in Islamabad which saw the Jamia Hafsa students and Jamia Fareedia kidnapping a woman allegedly running a brothel and her three relatives including a six-month-old child. They all were set free after two days of confinement in Jamia Hafsa premises.

Some of the other messages pasted by the Tehreek-e-Talba and Talibat demanded that the government shut down brothels and other such places, and run television, radio and newspapers under Shariat to prevent calamities such as earthquakes in future.

While inside the mosque the conference continued, several stalls outside displayed a variety of things including maswaks, perfumes, caps, religious CDs and cassettes, Islamic magazines and booklets on subjects like the ideal wife and loyal husband. Also up for sale were religious newspapers published in Peshawar and Karachi but Jamia Hafsa’s recently launched paper Khabarnama Jamia Hafsa, was not readily available.

Growing signs of extremism in the heart of the town left most people worried. They called for immediate action against the hardliners and students of Jamia Hafsa who, they said, had been challenging the writ of the government. The madrassa students illegally occupied a children’s library next to their madrassa in January and are still occupying the library, abducted a woman allegedly running a brothel, and threatened owners of video shops to close their businesses in addition to setting a deadline for the government to enforce Shariat. “The manner in which these students have been intimidating shopkeepers and others must be checked immediately otherwise things will get out of hand,” said Tayyab Suleman, a passer-by. “The government gave them an inch and it is no surprise that now, they have taken a mile,” he said.

Fakhar Ali, another pedestrian, told Daily Times that whatever was going on today was the result of the government’s refusal to act against the Jamia Hafsa students and administration. “These people now know that they can go about terrorising people in the name of religion as no action against them seems imminent,” he said. As the day wore on, a bulk of CDs and DVDs apparently brought in by a local shopkeeper were brunt by the madrassa students who declared them un-Islamic.
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I always thought of book burning as horrible, but I'm willing to make one exception, burn Korans, and I'll help,
(But be sure to get them ALL)
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/07/2007 10:10 Comments || Top||

#2  We could use the fire to cook our pork chops too, anyone got BBQ sauce?

I'm hungry, time to eat.
Posted by: covertfloridian || 04/07/2007 10:13 Comments || Top||

#3  Nah, there's to much bile in those writings, it'd give the meat a foul taste, however bacon grease is a beautiful firestarter.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/07/2007 10:20 Comments || Top||

#4  I always thought of book burning as horrible, but I'm willing to make one exception, burn Korans, and I'll help

As a bibliophile whose personal library holds thousands of books, I would normally rail against the least mention of book burning. It is the hallmark of intolerance and narrow-mindedness. I, too, would make an exception for the Koran as well. Especially so in light of how its dictates would require much of my library being put to the torch.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/07/2007 12:21 Comments || Top||

#5  “The manner in which these students have been intimidating shopkeepers and others must be checked immediately otherwise things will get out of hand,” said Tayyab Suleman, a passer-by. “The government gave them an inch and it is no surprise that now, they have taken a mile,” he said.

Fakhar Ali, another pedestrian, told Daily Times that whatever was going on today was the result of the government’s refusal to act against the Jamia Hafsa students and administration. “These people now know that they can go about terrorising people in the name of religion as no action against them seems imminent,” he said. As the day wore on, a bulk of CDs and DVDs apparently brought in by a local shopkeeper were brunt by the madrassa students who declared them un-Islamic


Moderate Pakistani watch
Posted by: Punky Flemp4639 || 04/07/2007 12:48 Comments || Top||


(Dis)information and rumours in capital
Islamabad is rife with rumours and pundits are busy speculating a “major change” at the top. The whispers prompted the presidency, a top military commander and the new information secretary to deny the prime minister was on his way out. “We have not even imagined any such thing,” a presidential spokesman was reported as saying. But the rumour-mongers insist that it is a matter of days. They even quote unnamed “well-connected” sources that it’s time for a change.

Though there are no apparent reasons for any “wrap-up” because the working relationship between Gen Musharraf and PM Aziz is “very cordial”, the judicial crisis along with the “Talibanisation” of Islamabad and a govt-PPP squabble over a “deal” or “dheel” are the topics of “drawing-room” discussions.

The NAB silence on the transfer of Hasan Wasim Afzal and Chaudhry Shujaat’s acceptance that Afzal has been transferred on Benazir’s complaint, support the speculations. While Shujaat and Information Minister Durrani have rejected the possibility of any deal with Benazir and her PPP before the general elections, two close-to-the-presidency federal ministers insist on a covert deal, predicting a “breakthrough” in the near future.

Babar Ghauri confirmed that “negotiations” between representatives of Musharraf and Benazir were continuing, and NSC Secretary Tariq Aziz met Benazir in Dubai two days ago. Shaikh Rashid insists the issue has now moved from the “quarter-final to the semi-final”. But PPP’s Sherry Rehman says there is no truth in the ministers’ statements and that the closure of Afzal-headed NAB office is aimed at providing some relief to the party. In fact, the speculations and (dis)informations started with Musharraf telling PML leaders last week to confront those exploiting the judicial crisis and leave the PPP to him, followed by Benazir’s admission of back-channel contacts with the regime.
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Stop Taliban in Pakistan: JAC
The Joint Action Committee (JAC) for People’s Rights – an alliance of some 30 NGOs and civil society groups – has condemned the ongoing process of ‘Talibanisation’ in the country, and demanded that the government take immediate notice of Jamia Hafsa students’ activities aimed to enforce Sharia. At a press conference at the Lahore Press Club, JAC representatives said the government was “proving itself to be supportive of Talibanisation by remaining quiet”. They also announced that JAC would hold a rally on April 19 against the “promotion of terrorism and dictatorial rule”. Asma Jahangir condemned extremism, while Shahtaj Qizilbash, Fareeda Shaheed, IA Rehman and Shabnam Rasheed stressed elimination of extremism.
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Sherpao pledges strong legal action
The government will take “strong legal action” against Lal Masjid prayer leader Maulana Abdul Aziz and his brother Abdul Rashid Ghazi for announcing enforcement of Sharia and threatening to carry out suicide attacks if the government opposed their actions, Interior Minister Aftab Ahmed Khan Sherpao told a press conference here on Friday. Sherpao said the government would not bow to pressure and threats by the clerics and would take legal action against the Lal Masjid administration and its attached madrassas. “The clerics cannot enforce Sharia by a simple announcement at Lal Masjid and the government will see how they do so,” he said. A press note issued by the Interior Ministry said: “The government is cognisant of the events taking place in Lal Masjid and Jamia Hafsa. The government has exercised maximum restraint out of respect for the mosque and presence of female students who have been misled into such activities.”
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


No danda in Islam, says Musharraf
President Gen Pervez Musharraf warned students of Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid on Saturday not take the law into their own hands, “as stick-wielding actions are against Islam”, according to Online. “Their stick-wielding activities lead to lawlessness, but this will never be allowed in the country,” said Musharraf at the ‘Lady Health Workers’ Convention’ at Liaquat Gymnasium here on Friday. He asked the Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid students to respect the sanctity of mosques, and said, “These people should open their minds to new ideas”, reported Online. “These people want to impose their will on people. Islam does not allow narrow mindedness, suicide attacks and bomb blasts, but these people are presenting Islam as a narrow-minded religion.”
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  “as stick-wielding actions are against Islam”

Sword-wielding actions, however, are explicitly approved.
Posted by: xbalanke || 04/07/2007 0:59 Comments || Top||

#2  Said yet another muslim dictator. Time to put the whole islamic world into the rinse cycle.
Posted by: Excalibur || 04/07/2007 8:44 Comments || Top||

#3  Don't bring a stick to a Gunfight.
On second thought, please do.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/07/2007 10:15 Comments || Top||

#4  Islam does not allow narrow mindedness, suicide attacks and bomb blasts, but these people are presenting Islam as a narrow-minded religion.

Guess which side is right?
Posted by: Zenster || 04/07/2007 11:55 Comments || Top||

#5  Islam does not allow narrow mindedness, suicide attacks and bomb blasts, but these people are presenting Islam as a narrow-minded religion.

"By their fruits shall you know them."
Posted by: Rob Crawford || 04/07/2007 13:46 Comments || Top||

#6 
"By their fruits shall you know them."

Rob, do you mean this one?

Posted by: Zenster || 04/07/2007 13:59 Comments || Top||


Pakistan: Curb 'vice' Or Face Suicide Attacks, Mosque Warns
(AKI) - The firebrand cleric of the Lal Masjid or Red Mosque in the capital Islamabad has given the Pakistani government one month's notice to curb "vice" or risk that the movement in the radical mosque takes matters into its own hands, even carrying out suicide attacks. "I give you one month notice to eliminate, gambling dens, video shops and brothels or after that we will do that ourselves," Maulana Abdul Aziz, the mosque's chief cleric announced during Friday prayers. “Our movement is peaceful," he said. "The government too should stay calm. We've warned the government that if it ever tried to suppress us by force, thousands of students of Islamic seminaries (or madrassas) will retaliate with suicide attacks and they would never be able to control them," said Aziz. The cleric also announced that a Sharia or Islamic court will be established by the mosque, made up of ten religious scholars who will decide disputes and give their verdict in accordance with Islamic law. Aziz also announced the establishment of a Baitul Maal (Treasury) where contributions would be collected to finance the movement.

Followers of the radical clerics in Lal Masjid have increasingly been challenging the government in recent months. Students of the Islamic seminaries or madrassas, Jamia Hafsa and Jamia Faridia, which are part of the Lal Masjid complex, occupied a children's library in Islamabad in protest against the demolition of several unauthorised mosques. They also kidnapped three women and a child for allegedly running a brothel and recently threatened the owners of shop selling videos and CDs carrying material which they say is obscene and vulgar. This Taliban-style activity has caused outrage among human rights groups in Pakistan. On Thursday thousands of activists staged a protest calling for action to be taken against the two madrassas, one for women and the other for men. They said that the madrassas are harassing ordinary people in the name of Islam.

Aziz said that the female students from the Jamia Hafsa madrassa in Islamabad went to video and CD shops only to advise the shopkeepers not to sell obscenity. "Nobody was holding any sticks in their hands. We only preach peacefully," he said, urging the government to join hands in the struggle. “If anyone gives up this unscrupulous business of vulgar films, we will compensate his losses," he said. "The government should also come forward and help us achieve this task to eliminate vice from society," said the cleric. The government for its part has said that it hopes to resolve the situation peacefully.
Continued on Page 49
This article starring:
Jamia Faridia
Jamia Hafsa
Lal Masjid
MAULANA ABDUL AZIZLal Masjid
MIAN MOHAMED ASLAMJamaat-i-Islami
Jamaat-i-Islami
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Perv better smack this shit down or he'll be out on his ass (or dead)
Posted by: Frank G || 04/07/2007 8:25 Comments || Top||

#2  I think Perv's days may be numbered..

The powerbrokers of democracy


By GENERAL (RETD) MIRZA ASLAM BEG

The melt down has started. Regime change has become inevitable. On a quiet moment, one can hear the rustling sound of the wind of change – ‘a peaceful transition to the ‘rule of law and peoples’ power’ – the quintessential elements that lend grace and dignity to a nation. Any contrived soft image is a delusion.

Note: Dedicated to the memory of, former Prime Minister of Pakistan, late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

The writer is former Chief of Army Staff, Pakistan
Posted by: John Frum || 04/07/2007 8:45 Comments || Top||

#3  Or maybe not...

Jamia Hafsa was begun with government funding and continued to receive substantial government funding for many years. Whether it still does is not known. The opposition has already alleged that the government has created this situation to divert attention from the chief-justice crisis. Even the MMA has collectively condemned each act of the students of Jamia Hafsa and Lal Masjid and disclaimed responsibility for their acts.

In the background, General Pervez Musharraf is not only faced with the judicial crisis he has created, but is being pressured by the United States on the necessity to hold free and fair elections (US congressmen have gone from Pakistan straight to London to meet with Nawaz Sharif. They were already in contact with Benazir Bhutto, with whom a government deal appears to be in the offing).

It is difficult to see why the government, which can easily pull the curtain on this drama, has refused to do so thus far. Why would Musharraf, who proudly portrays himself as Pakistan’s strongman, allow this episode to drag itself unnecessarily in Islamabad when he has not been averse to using force in the tribal areas, in Balochistan and in Karachi? Is it possible that he has deliberately permitted the situation to go this far, in the hope that it will reinforce the view that he is indispensable if Pakistan has to have a moderate future? This may or may not be true. But if it is, then all one can say is that if he has, then he has descended to depths hitherto unprecedented. His legacy will be worse than his predecessor, Zia-ul Haq’s.
Posted by: John Frum || 04/07/2007 8:51 Comments || Top||

#4  If Musharraf has any brains, the Lal Masjid mosque will be turned into a into smoking hole. Preferrably with all its attendees inside at the time.

Does anyone else see a delicious irony in how Muslims so gleefully turn upon each other for being "not Islamic enough"? If this sanctimonious "holier than thou" crapulence didn't presage the sort of intolerant bullshit that Western culture will have to confront, it would be absolutely hilarious.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/07/2007 12:04 Comments || Top||


Iraq
Maliki orders pensions for Saddam's officers
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki on Friday ordered pension payments for senior officers of Saddam Hussein's military and offered a return to service for lower-ranking soldiers, a major step aimed at defusing the Sunni insurgency and meeting US benchmarks for his government.

In a statement, Al-Maliki's office said the decision was made during a Cabinet meeting late last month. It was not clear why the information was only released Friday.

Many former top intelligence, security and military officials are believed to have joined the Sunni insurgency after former US administrator L. Paul Bremer disbanded Iraq's 350,000-member military on May 23, 2003, a month after the regime Saddam's regime was ousted.
The al-Maliki statement said that any former officer above the rank of major would be given a pension equal to that of officers now retiring.

Former officers above major who wanted to rejoin the army were encouraged to check with the military command to learn if they were acceptable in the Iraqi army that is being rebuilt by American forces. Those who had the rank of major or lower may voluntarily return to the army.
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [2 views] Top|| File under:

#1  OK. So one thing has bugged me from the get-go (say, fall of '03, when some kids were clearly starting to spoil things for the whole class).

These former top intelligence, security and military officials all used to get paid, yes? Their names are/were probably on all sorts of rosters and other government documents, most of which we got when we rolled in, yes? Or, alternatively, could be very very easily reconstructed/traced through local research, bribes, interviews, ets., yes?

So ..... why in the hell, in areas where there's clearly a problem, have not ALL of these people been offered free room and board - oh, no we REALLY insist, to the extent of mowing you and your house down with a Bushmaster if you don't come quietly - for an extended period?

Why have we/the Iraqis been trying to lure likely or even dead-certain suspects behind the violence when we already have their names on lists? In this respect, this has to have been the easiest "insurgency" to crush in history. Wannabes and newcomers and average Omars and foreign jihadis are one thing - but for krissakes, these people are on lists of names of government employees, soldiers, etc.

How could the noble resistance function if a huge number of its experienced/motivated cadres were preventively detained? Why wasn't this done, selectively, beginning the minute that organized trouble started in any Sunni areas?

Dunno how this squares with Petraeus' new COIN document, or the Small Wars Handbook, etc. Doesn't matter. It's called common sense.

One of the most widely accepted myths is that it was a big "mistake" to disband the already self-disbanded Iraqi military, which consisted of (1) mostly useless conscripts and (2) Sunni officers and others who were/are the enemy of the new Iraq. What no one ever asks is, why didn't we un-disband the Sunni portion of the military, and put them behind wire?

Not a magic bullet, but probably a gigantic direct hit on the "insurgency's" ability to mount more than a desultory campaign of harassment.
Posted by: Verlaine || 04/07/2007 1:33 Comments || Top||

#2  Good job, Verlaine. CovertFloridian appreciates. Keep writing, you never know who reads what and advises what to whom in DC.
Posted by: covertfloridian || 04/07/2007 1:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Make Saddam's pensioners pick up their checks in person in the most remote & least settled parts of Iraq, every week, like some states do unemployment checks. Every day would be even better.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 04/07/2007 2:32 Comments || Top||

#4  What the top three commenters are suggesting sounds a lot like what has been happening with the series of 'death squad' abductions, tortures, and executions. Unless you think they were all just random sectarian 'hits'.
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/07/2007 6:50 Comments || Top||

#5  Actually, Glenmore, there's a big difference. First, I'm talking about a totally systematic approach - every single human consuming oxygen who's on certain lists would be detained, duration depending on who they were and how interesting/cooperative they turn out to be. This would vary considerably, so that the detention burden would be nothing like the full number of former govt. types who are nominally "of interest". It's not rocket science, when you apply this sort of measure, to sort, split, and set them against each other using every trick in the book. Upshot is a lot of ability to ID the key bad guys, as well as the foot soldiers. Of course you have to apply your power once you know who the enemy is. Nobody would be killed unless they resisted arrest - of course being very generous in dispensing overwhelming force to those who DID resist arrest would have collateral benefits, too.

As to the Shi'a death squad activity, I think there are at least two distinct types. Going back to '03, there has been some targeted killing of former Ba'athist types (presumably by Badr Corps and other groups organized before we arrived). I'm no expert on it, but let's say it was pretty limited and disappointing in its results - obviously, or no "insurgency" would have been sustained.

After the Golden Mosque bombing a year ago, there was a well-known upsurge in larger, and often random, killings of Sunni and presumed-Sunni males, esp. in Baghdad. This is probably more the work of Sadr's type of crude, quasi-criminal gang network. I recall telling one of our Shi'a employees when this started that, if only the "death squads" hit the right people, it might actually help with the war and the country's people. He had an unfounded confidence that in fact the killers were gettting the "right" people - disappointing, as he was a pretty sharp guy.
Posted by: Verlaine || 04/07/2007 11:20 Comments || Top||

#6  Verlaine, good points - I would also say that, given the brutality and Sunni overlording of the Kurds and Shias, that a certain amount of payback HAD to happen, just as kicking the Sunnis out of Kirkuk (where they were installed in a Kurd-clearing policy by Saddam) is also a probably necessary action before the country can feel "made whole". Sunnis have just found out that payback's a bitch
Posted by: Frank G || 04/07/2007 11:28 Comments || Top||

#7  Verlaine is absolutely right and I say we start with that waste-of-skin Maliki.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/07/2007 12:59 Comments || Top||

#8  Give all males over 10 the final dirt nap.
There are too many muzzies anyway, we have to start reducing their numbers.
Posted by: wxjames || 04/07/2007 13:15 Comments || Top||

#9  Now, now, Zenster, stick with the program (my program, just kidding). The idea is to "crush Sunnis first", which I believe was always the logical way to pacify the place. Take away the 95% of political violence for most of the post-invasion period that was Sunni-based, and of course you've changed the entire story, both in Iraq and back here.

Maliki's not even in the top 10 of problems to solve. Take away the Sunni war of barbarism and you've still got a very different situation, one that undercuts the Shi'a militias in a fundamental way that can be produced through no other approach. OK, several years down the tubes while we did nothing of the sort, but it's not too late to engage that key dynamic.

Posted by: Verlaine || 04/07/2007 23:48 Comments || Top||


Israel-Palestine-Jordan
Banks balk at dealing with new Palestinian gov’t
GAZA - Local, regional and international banks are refusing to transfer funds to the new Palestinian unity government, Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas said on Friday.

Haniyeh accused the United States of putting pressure on the banks to block the flow of funds to the coalition government formed last month by Hamas and President Mahmoud Abbas’s Fatah faction. “The banks refused to deal with us and they are still refusing (to deal with the government) because of American gang-like actions,” Haniyeh said during Friday prayers. “We want the American administration to remove its hand off the banks... If that happens, it would encourage Arab countries and encourage European countries” to restore direct aid to the Palestinian Authority, Haniyeh said.
Still got 'em where it really hurts, do we?
Hamas came to power in March 2006, leading to a Western aid embargo. Banking sanctions have prevented the Palestinian Authority from bringing in enough money from Iran and other donors to pay its workforce in full. Israel is also withholding Palestinian tax revenues.

To get around the banking sanctions, members of the Hamas-led government have resorted to smuggling suitcases of cash into Gaza through Egypt.
You'd think a zealous Egyptian customs agent could make a nice living for himself. Perhaps he already is.
Banks in the region are especially vulnerable to US and Israeli pressure because they rely on “correspondent” financial institutions in Israel and the United States for day-to-day transactions in shekels and dollars. Under US law, any foreign bank that refuses to cooperate with the United States in cutting off funding to Hamas could have its US assets frozen and lose its access to US financial markets. US banks could, in turn, be required to terminate any correspondent accounts.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Paleo propensity to resort to deadly force at slightest provocation, probably, also have something to do with it. To wit, if you're an Arab banker: the possibility what some Hamas (Fatah) thug will take offence at you handling money to a "Palestinian Government" member identified with the other faction; is gotta be a consideration.
Posted by: gromgoru || 04/07/2007 5:22 Comments || Top||

#2  Haniyeah is just pissed because he's being treated like a number in a big bank with big fees. Welcome to our world, Haniyeah you POS.
Posted by: covertfloridian || 04/07/2007 9:47 Comments || Top||

#3  "American gang-like actions," Haniyeh said during Friday prayers.

Always nice to get an expert opinion.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/07/2007 20:05 Comments || Top||


Abbas says Israeli soldier to be freed soon
PARIS - A captured Israeli soldier held by militants in Gaza will be released soon, ineffectual Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said in a television interview on Friday. “We are undertaking efforts to free Shalit and these efforts will soon come to fruition,” Abbas told France 24 television of Corporal Gilad Shalit, who was seized last June in a cross-border raid from Gaza into southern Israel. “We are optimistic. He will be freed soon,” Abbas said in comments due to be broadcast at 1710 GMT.

However, he gave no specifics and previous comments by him about Shalit have not resulted in the soldier’s release. Abbas said there were also 9,500 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel who should be released too, although he said the two issues were not related.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Lips. Moving.
Posted by: gromgoru || 04/07/2007 5:27 Comments || Top||

#2  If Israel release 10,000 Paleo prisoners, they'd better be half Hams and half Fats, with plenty of 'programming' to fight each other.
Posted by: Glenmore || 04/07/2007 6:58 Comments || Top||

#3  WORLD'S MOST COMMON LIES:

Let's see, a)the check is in the mail, b)I'll respect you in the morning, c)I'm from the government and I'm here to help you, d)Paleos say Israeli soldier to be released soon.

Got any questions? Ask Ron Arad.
Posted by: Mac || 04/07/2007 8:27 Comments || Top||

#4  he's dead, Jim
Posted by: Frank G || 04/07/2007 8:30 Comments || Top||


Hebron settlers to be evicted within 12 days
JERUSALEM - Israeli police should evict Jewish settlers from a house in the West Bank town of Hebron within the next 12 days, deputy defence minister Ephraim Sneh said on Friday. The hardline settlers took over the house on March 19 claiming that they had bought it -- a charge rejected as a lie by the Palestinian owners. About 200 Jewish settlers moved in to the three-storey building on a road linking Hebron to the Jewish settlement of Kiryat Arba.

“This presence in the heart of Hebron is illegal,” Sneh said on public radio, stressing that the settlers should be moved out by police “between now and April 18”. Sneh said that any real estate transaction in the West Bank must have the approval of the Israeli “civil administration” in the Palestinian territory which was not the case with the house involved.

Hebron has long been a flashpoint between Palestinians and Israelis. Under an agreement with the Palestinian Authority, Israel evacuated 80 percent of Hebron in 1997, leaving a settlement of several hundred Jewish settlers, protected by its soldiers, around the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a site holy to both Jews and Muslims.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  F*cking appeasers.
Posted by: gromgoru || 04/07/2007 5:16 Comments || Top||

#2  israel is a state of law, and is enforcing the law. Good for them.

and why go live among the Pal loonies in Hebron anyway?
Posted by: Punky Flemp4639 || 04/07/2007 12:43 Comments || Top||


Moscow against Palestine aid embargo
Russia has criticized the aid embargo on Palestine for hurting the chances of peace talks. Moscow has called for an immediate lifting of a Western-imposed embargo on direct aid to paralyze the Hamas-led government which took power through a January 2006 national election. Alexander Saltanov, Russia's top Middle East diplomat, said on Friday that the sanctions were radicalizing the Palestinian society.

"In our view any sanctions and restrictions are in principle harmful because in the first place it is the Palestinian people who suffer," Reuters quoted Alexander Saltanov, the Kremlin's special representative for the Middle East, as saying. "Naturally they are unhappy, they feel anger, which can spill over into certain phenomena and that mood will be used by those forces who are against restoring (talks between Israel and the Palestinians,)," he told reporters.
"Eye rolling, face making, gun sex, you can really tell they feel anger," he continued.
The Russian diplomat said there had been a "palpable evolution in terms of the Palestinian government meeting the demands of the criteria of the Quartet, stressing that "... the sanction measures are not justified."
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Apparently Vlad doesn't see any connection between his Realpolitik approach to ME and Beslan.
Posted by: gromgoru || 04/07/2007 5:26 Comments || Top||

#2  Nah, he's afraid they'll want him to pay up when the "Aid" runs out.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/07/2007 10:28 Comments || Top||


Netanyahu: I've matured
Benjamin Netanyahu said he has matured since he served as Israeli prime minister. Netanyahu, now the Israeli opposition leader, said in an interview published this week that he has matured as a politician since he was voted out of top office eight years ago. "There were lessons to learn from the previous term, not necessarily in policy and statesmanship but in the realm of conduct — and I have learned them," Netanyahu told Ma'ariv. "That is maturity, a sense of readiness and broad understanding of systems, age and life experience that affect us all. I am not different from anyone else on this score. There is a basic core that you take with you, but layers are added to it over time and a stronger and more stable foundation is created.”

Opinion polls show that Netanyahu, who leads the right-wing Likud Party, would topple Prime Minister Ehud Olmert if elections were held today. Netanyahu has accused Olmert of endangering Israel's national security with his support for territorial concessions to the Palestinians.
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  For anyone interested in Israeli politics, here's a long FrontPageMag symposium on the issues and people:
Part 1
Part 2
Posted by: xbalanke || 04/07/2007 0:57 Comments || Top||

#2  Go get em Bibi. Nice line about that whole maturity thing, yeah so when you start JDAMing Syria and Hez, & Ahmadinawackjob, I'm going to sit in my lazy boy with a beer watching your fireworks on FNC.
Posted by: covertfloridian || 04/07/2007 1:11 Comments || Top||

#3  I'll vote for him! :-)
Posted by: gorb || 04/07/2007 1:29 Comments || Top||

#4  Every time I hear his name, I find myself saying "Yahoooo-oo!" from the old Yahoo commercial theme song. Sorry, it's a personal problem.
Posted by: covertfloridian || 04/07/2007 10:25 Comments || Top||

#5  Hail Bibi! He returneth with his pair of grapes!
(AT)
Posted by: Asymmetrical T || 04/07/2007 20:55 Comments || Top||


British envoy meets Haniyeh
A British diplomat met the Palestinian Authority prime minister, raising Israeli hackles. Britain's consul general in Jerusalem, Richard Makepeace, traveled to Gaza on Thursday for talks with Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas, despite London's official boycott of the terrorist group that heads the Palestinian Authority.

Political sources said the meeting related to British efforts to recover a BBC reporter who was kidnapped in Gaza last month. But Israeli officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, worried that Thursday's meeting would undermine Western efforts to isolate Hamas until it softens its stance against the Jewish state. There is concern as well that by signaling its willingness to engage Hamas over the missing journalist, Britain could spur Palestinians to kidnap Israelis in hope of effecting similar contacts with Jerusalem.
This article starring:
Ismail Haniyeh
Richard Makepeace
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [1 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This article also starring:

British Establishment anti-semitism

Foreign Office appeasement

Lawrence of Arabia noble-savage myth
Posted by: Excalibur || 04/07/2007 8:47 Comments || Top||

#2  After Britain's less than sterling resaponse to Iran's provocation, perhaps it might be wisest for them just to STAY THE FUCK OUT of the Middle East right now. Whatever help we've been getting in Iraq is almost completely neutralized by their emboldening of Iran. There's four very dead British soldiers to prove it.
Posted by: Zenster || 04/07/2007 18:47 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Indonesia: Arrested Terror Suspects Just Foot Soldiers, Expert Says
(AKI) - Recent police anti-terror raids in Indonesia have been important but the risk of attacks remains high, according to Ken Conboy, an expert on Islamic terrorism in southeast Asia. "The raids led to the seizing of a high quantity of explosives. But I am not sure those arrested knew exactly what they were doing. I believe they are just labourers," Conboy told Adnkronos International (AKI). Conboy also said he did not believe that terror group Jemaah Islamiyah (JI) had created a cell to kill members of a special anti-terror squad of the Indonesian police, the Detachment 88, as reported by the local media.

According to the reports, the terror cell is called Qoriya, or Ascari. "It is not like the JI," said the analyst, the author of 'The Second Front: Inside Asia's Most Dangerous Terrorist Network', a book on the history of Jemaah Islamiyah. "Moreover, Ascari is not a new group; it is a name that has been around for a while. JI's main targets remain Western interests in Indonesia. The group has in the past attacked policemen but it would not even have the capabilities to track down Detachment 88."

Detachment 88 has carried out a number of raids at the end of March near Yogyakarta, Central Java. The raids have led to the arrest of seven suspects and the death of an alleged militant. Police also confiscated a cache of weapons and explosives. In contradictory statements, the police have said in the past few days both that the explosives were to be employed in a large scale attack similar to the one carried out in Bali in 2002, or in an attack Poso, in the Sulawesi province, a key JI base.
This article starring:
Ken Conboy
Jemaah Islamiyah
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Unity hinders discord: Haddad Adel
Iranian Majlis (Parliament) Speaker has said unity is the biggest hindrance to discord and conflict among Muslims.

Attending the Friday Prayers in Lahore, Pakistan, Gholam Ali Haddad Adel described unity as the most important factor in preventing discord and conflict among Islamic nations.

On the third day of his visit to Pakistan, he commemorated the 'Week of Unity', saying that on the blessed birthday of Prophet Muhammad (PBUH), his followers should resolve their differences and create a unity among themselves.

Noting that the enemies of Islam have targeted the identity of Islamic Ummah, he stressed the role of clerics in awakening and illuminating Muslim nations to foil the plots of the enemies.

Haddad Adel also referred to the cultural, religious, and political commonalities between Iran and Pakistan, stressing that the two countries could play an important role in resolving the issues of the Muslim World.
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Gholam Ali Haddad Adel described unity as the most important factor in preventing discord and conflict among Islamic nations.

Well, dayum, cain't hardly argew agin' that. He must be reel smart - prolly grajeated hi skool too.
Posted by: xbalanke || 04/07/2007 0:49 Comments || Top||

#2  gud fonettics on thatr mr. xbalanke.. >::
Posted by: Red Dog || 04/07/2007 4:08 Comments || Top||

#3  he's saying Iran should wear the Big Turban™
Posted by: Frank G || 04/07/2007 8:34 Comments || Top||

#4  And he personally should wear the curly-toed bejeweled slippers.
Posted by: Steve White || 04/07/2007 11:33 Comments || Top||


Hezbollah: Captives treated humanely
A Hezbollah leader said two kidnapped Israeli soldiers were being treated humanely. Israel Defense Force reservists Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, whose capture in a crossborder raid last July sparked a monthlong war between Israel and Hezbollah, are receiving the same treatment as that given Elhanan Tannenbaum, Muhammad Kamati told the Nazareth-based newspaper A-Sinara in an interview to be published Friday, the Jerusalem Post reported. Tannenbaum was an Israeli businessman kidnapped in Europe and held captive in Lebanon for several years until he was released in exchange for hundreds of Arab prisoners.

"We are treating the prisoners as the prisoners whom we released in the past have described, and as our religion directs us to treat prisoners of war," Kamati said.

Goldwasser's wife, Karnit, said the statements constituted neither a sign of life nor a "turning point" in efforts to win their release. "We want to see them alive," she told Channel 2 television. "A sign of life is if someone sees them, and a Red Cross representative needs to see them. Until now, no one has seen them, including the Red Cross."

Goldwasser's father, Shlomo, said Israel must talk directly to Hezbollah, just as Britain negotiated with Iran to win the release of captured British sailors this week. He spoke to reporters in Tel Aviv, where he was joined by 150 participants in a cross-country solidarity march for Goldwasser, Regev and Gilad Shalit, who was kidnapped by Palestinians near the Gaza Strip last June.
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:


Terror Networks
Zawahiri Shuns Phones And Internet, Report Says
(AKI) - The number two of al-Qaeda Ayman al-Zawahiri according to a report in Arab newspaper al-Sharq al-Awsat on Thursday, has not used the internet or a telephone of any sort since 2003 for fear of being traced. The leader of the Egyptian Islamist group Jamaa Islamiya, Muhammad Khalil Hasan al-Hakayma, told the paper that al-Zawahiri "has not used the Internet or a telephone, either mobile or fixed-line, for more than four years."

"He does not use modern means of communications, neither telephones nor email for fear of being intercepted by Western secret services involved in the war against terrorism" said al-Hakayma.

Al-Hakayma had contacted the Arab newspaper to defend the Egyptian lawyer Mamdouh Ismayl, arrested by the Egyptian authorities on suspicion of financing the al-Qaeda terrorist network. The Egyptian judiciary last week asked for the arrest of Ismayl on charges he financed al-Qaeda in Egypt, Yemen and Algeria, on the indications of al-Zawahiri. "If al-Qaeda decides to receive funding from someone it does not use already known individuals for its contacts with Islamist extremists already arrested in the past" explained the Jamaa al-Islamiya.
This article starring:
AIMAN AL ZAWAHIRIal-Qaeda
Egyptian lawyer Mamdouh Ismayl
MAMDUH ISMAILal-Qaeda
MUHAMAD KHALIL HASAN AL HAKAIMAJamaa Islamiya
Jamaa Islamiya
Posted by: Fred || 04/07/2007 00:00 || Comments || Link || [0 views] Top|| File under:

#1  So he still has a mailing address that can get anthrax letters?
Posted by: 3dc || 04/07/2007 2:51 Comments || Top||

#2  This is not all bad, it puts a huge delay in his operations, a big crimp so to speak, rendering him much less effective.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 04/07/2007 11:23 Comments || Top||

#3  Zawahiri Shuns Internet

I blame Rantburg Moderators' habit of sinktrapping his posts.
Posted by: gromgoru || 04/07/2007 15:38 Comments || Top||

#4  Delay is only one courier ride away. Rawalpindi is a pretty wired place.

The NSA staffer who boasted to the press that they taped all OBL's conversations should be sent to Antartica to monitor the mating calls of Penguins.
Posted by: John Frum || 04/07/2007 16:18 Comments || Top||



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Two weeks of WOT
Sat 2007-04-07
  Pakistan: Curb 'vice' Or Face Suicide Attacks, Mosque Warns
Fri 2007-04-06
  12 killed in Iraq Qaeda chlorine attack
Thu 2007-04-05
  50 more titzup in Wazoo festivities
Wed 2007-04-04
  Iran deigns to release kidnapped sailors
Tue 2007-04-03
  All British sailors confess to illegal trespassing
Mon 2007-04-02
  Democrats To Widen Conflict With Bush
Sun 2007-04-01
  Wazoo tribesmen attack Qaeda bunkers
Sat 2007-03-31
  Japan sets up missile defence shield near Tokyo
Fri 2007-03-30
  Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai stretchy neck
Thu 2007-03-29
  Arab League unanimously approves Saudi peace plan
Wed 2007-03-28
  US starts largest exercise since war
Tue 2007-03-27
  Hicks pleads guilty
Mon 2007-03-26
  Release Sufi Muhammad in 72 hours or Else: TNSM
Sun 2007-03-25
  UNSC approves new sanctions on Iran
Sat 2007-03-24
  Iran kidnaps Brit sailors, marines

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